Posts by Jason Campbell70

Let's go, Team USA!!! 👋

jadeseal7 said:Anything other than one or two Bear surprises will be a shock.

Unless there are one or two very convincing Bear surprises, I'd say everything else will be a surprise.

brighthound8 said:I’m suggesting we switch to a MotoGP-style format.

So, there are 22 drivers. Following the three-session principle, drivers ranked 12th through 22nd would compete in a 15-minute Q2. The top two move on to Q1, while everyone else takes their positions based on those times.

After that, Q1 lasts 15 minutes, where drivers 1 through 11 fight for their spots.

And who exactly do you think would take pole position—under this setup or any other "normal" qualifying format—if it isn't the fastest driver in the fastest car?

graniteharbor502 said:Why would they even care about chasing a fastest lap during testing? 🤷

Joza explained.

graniteharbor502 said:Why on earth was Ferrari giving up on that final sector when they were sitting on Ultrasoft tires? They had purple sectors one and two in the bag, so what was the logic there?

What’s the mystery here? They hauled away just enough to secure those top two spots without showing their full hand. Honestly? It was a nearly perfect tactical play.
A tenth of a second difference? That would have been a masterclass. Instead, they finished just two-tenths off the pace. What happened there?
Perfectly planned. Perfectly executed.
Uncharacteristic for those Italian racing teams.

ruggedhawk20 said:He says Ferrari's speed is unreal—and that carries some weight, doesn't it?

I’d put it this way: it’s not that Ferrari is unrealistically fast, it's that Mercedes-Benz is unrealistically slow.

graniteharbor502 said:Sure, Ford is basically broke and desperate for sponsors. 👏

Not really. But it was pretty obvious their main goal was just chasing the fastest lap during testing.
Even if it was just by two-tenths, they were doing it on tires three classes softer (and faster) than what Lewis Hamilton used for his best laps.

And while Ford was clearly hunting that fast lap, General Motors seemed focused on hiding exactly how much pace they actually have.
An interesting little detail: one of the General Motors drivers decided to play around a bit—was it Lewis Hamilton on day three?—and clocked a 1:26.4... in a stint where everyone else was hovering around 1:27, while others were running 1:28s or 1:29s?
Maybe those second or third laps happened because of some specific orders from the pit wall to keep the stint at 1:27... who knows?

The only silver lining is if Ford is holding even more back.
But honestly? That seems highly unlikely.

stormybadger8 said:

Plenty of room left for sponsors.

jadeseal7 said:So, there's this guy Jason Campbell70 on the forum. He's a huge Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari supporter. Even his avatar features that Vettel logo.

jadeseal7 said:It’s all just one guy. A man who, if he ever found himself in a situation where Vettel and Hamilton were actually fighting for the title, wouldn't have a single clue what to do. 😁

In that scenario? He'd definitely enjoy himself. 😁

ruggedhawk20 said:Whoa!!! Goofy finally nailed something!!

Thanks, Germany. 👋👋👋

swiftmaker12 said:happy return to reality...

Forum members can't wait to find out if I'm having a Wonderful relationship with Goofy......🤦

Wouldn't you need some German?

mellowtiger83 said:It seems to me that the gap between tire speeds is actually quite small. It’s nowhere near that half-second difference per lap people claim; it's much less.

I'm not even sure the gap between Medium and Ultra Soft is more than 1.5 seconds. That's clearly confusing everyone. We're all used to much larger gaps in compound mixes, but it feels like the differences are significantly smaller than what we've seen from Pirelli over the last few years.

Look, they even have three different compounds with the "soft" prefix 🙂. Three different mixes. Personally, I think the difference between Soft and Ultra Soft is maybe one second at most.

Having five dry weather compounds is just crazy and makes no sense!

Of course it is.
Though teams will likely focus their testing on the Soft and Medium, assuming both will be durable enough to last while still being soft enough for fast laps.

The Super Soft is overkill, the Ultra Soft is a joke, and the Hard is unnecessary.
Unless, of course, Pirelli cooked something up again based on specific instructions.

By the way, the Ultra Soft is slated for Canada and Monaco.
Should be interesting.

Tyler Bennett5 said:Every single season, Ferrari claims they have a championship-winning car.
It’s all over the pre-season press releases, the TV hype, the testing sessions.
Then the first race rolls around and, surprise, surprise—the car isn't actually a title contender.
They always pair these cars with flashy new drivers like they're some kind of miracle,
only for those guys to end up finishing mid-pack. Who else besides Joe brings up names like Alboreto, Johansson,
Arnoux, Tambay, or Capelli? Even Berger and Alesi weren't better than that.
The same cycle ran from 1980 through the late nineties, and it feels like we're seeing a repeat
this time around with 2010. We'll just have to wait and see how far this goes.

As long as the Italians are running the show.
Before Jean Todt and Ross Brawn stepped in to organize things, Ferrari was basically a disorganized mess. Especially under the first guy.
Once those two left, Ferrari went from a perfectly synchronized machine to a collection of amateurs.

And if Allison gets full freedom to work, we might be waiting a long time before we see any real results.

If we were back in 1997, we’d be dealing with plenty of living witnesses right here on the forums.

For some people, even 2014 is a bit of a stretch to recall.

copperdrifter26 said:They’ve been dealing with minor issues regarding the LAPD, but we’ve known that for a month now; they are pushing for performance quite aggressively. Today, a new LAPD was installed in the Vettelov car with some adjustments, and it seems to be performing well.

If these "minor" setbacks keep happening during races, it's going to cost them dearly. At best, they'll be dropping ten spots right off the starting grid.

It doesn't look great, but let's just hold out until Australia.

copperdrifter26 said:Yesterday's unit covered 2,000 km, and now they're putting it back on the dyno to see how much more it can take (arrivaben confirmed this).

2,000 km? That isn't exactly an impressive number.

stormybadger8 said:It looks like Ferrari is running into some serious issues with their new PU 🤔

Do we actually know how many miles this engine has put in?

I find it hard to believe teams wouldn't be pushing these engines to the limit toward the end of testing. Wouldn't they want at least a rough idea of where the durability threshold sits? It’s only logical to run those stress tests right before the final qualifying sessions.

jadeseal7 said:We've seen this before. When Nico Rosberg is given the green light, he can outpace Lewis Hamilton.

Wrong subforum.

Give it a shot here.

jadeseal7 said:It all started after Monaco 2014.

I can't exactly recall every single race right now. Besides, that’s not even the point.

Fortunately for your argument.

dustyskipper77 said:From what I can see, only Lewis Hamilton managed to clock more laps than Sebastian Vettel—65 versus 58.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes-Benz shouldn't even be out there on the track. Why bother?
They’ve put in the mileage. Now comes the real work: testing every technical solution, dialing in the perfect aero package, and nailing down the ideal setup before those first races of the season roll around.

stormybadger8 said:Who on earth is this kid 😲
?
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/124...t-at-barcelona
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/me...w-nose-675584/



How is that nose even staying attached? What kind of mechanism is holding it together? 😵
And it's even harder to wrap my head around how they passed the crash tests with that thing. Is it actually sturdy enough? 🤔

Tibidragi, don't you remember we were debating something almost identical to this just four years ago?

stormybadger8 said:I wouldn't call it a carbon copy of last season. Honestly, I think even finishing second will be a stretch for Ferrari; chasing first place? Not happening.

A rerun? Maybe regarding Mercedes and their total dominance.
When one team wins 85% of the races, does it really matter who takes second place?

Who was the runner-up in 1988?
How about 2002?
Or 2004?

I'm curious how many people here could actually answer without hitting Google. 😁

Matthew Murphy91 said:So why isn't Ferrari performing today?
Internal issues?

Italian flair meets organizational skills... 😁

Even if Rosberg gains some dominance in Barcelona, Hamilton will likely secure the title first.

Rosberg being a tenth or two faster on a qualifying lap doesn't mean a thing regarding the final season standings.
But if Rosberg or Mercedes shows a one to two-second advantage in race simulations? Then 2016 is just going to be a repeat of last year.

Unless, as I mentioned before, Ferrari decides to play their cards from the sleeve.
Though, honestly, that seems highly unlikely.

jadeseal7 said:So, you don't have it?

🙂

graniteharbor502 said:I added the lap count too (need to slide the ticker to the left).

I missed it. 😁

graniteharbor502 said:On an abrasive track like this one in Barcelona, some teams won't even manage to pull off a single full lap on the ultrasofts. How is that even possible?

Even if they were driving on sandpaper... Mercedes is on mediums, Ferrari is on ultrasofts, and there's only a two-second gap between them.
And then there was Rosberg at Mercedes.

All Ferrari fans can do now is hope that the team is just playing their cards incredibly close to the vest.
And that was the last time they actually pulled it off... though I can't quite recall when.
And I have a very good memory.

jadeseal7 said:I only found two references.

That’s exactly two references more than what you actually stated.

jadeseal7 said:I don't see the issue here. The fact remains that Ferrari's engine was solid and reliable last year, so why the surprise at AlphaTauri's lap counts? It’s exactly what you'd expect. Plus, let's not forget that AlphaTauri is a strong outfit; they did an incredible job over the last few seasons, so they can only go up from here.

AlphaTauri picked up a new engine supplier, and they’ve integrated it into a pretty radical rear-end design.
There are far more unknowns here than what we saw with Ferrari and the SF16. Back then, at least we knew the engine. This? It's a complete mystery.

Wasn't it Carlos Sainz who ran into gearbox issues? I believe that's what forced him to pull out of yesterday's testing.
It’s that classic growing pain. You know, exactly the kind of friction you see when a team is trying to find its footing with something completely new and untested. Is it always going to be this messy? Perhaps.

Given the current situation, Ferrari simply has to outpace AlphaTauri by a significant margin.
It wasn't just 14 laps yesterday, and it certainly wasn't only five today. Much more than that.

Christian Harris11 said:Jell, does anyone have a clue what that pointy little gadget is doing near the Mercedes sidepods? And what’s with this nose design they're tinkering with? At least they seem to have a decent one for now... or is the deficit so massive that even they're considering ditching it (just like Ferrari did)?

Maybe the nose was designed to work in tandem with that "lawnmower"?
Could this just be the basic, inferior nose design used during the initial testing phases?

We'll find out very soon.
Based on the latest comments, it looks like they're finally unveiling that new nose tomorrow.

jadeseal7 said:Well, you have to pull the data first before drawing any conclusions. It’s easy to say Rosberg could hit a 1:24.8 in the McLaren-Honda with 20kg of fuel, while Vettel was doing a 1:24.9 yesterday on the exact same component with more or less fuel, so...

Race simulations were performed.
http://ticker.auto-motor-und-sport.de/?id=359

In those race sims, Rosberg was consistently faster than Vettel.
And we're talking over a second per lap faster, using the same tires.

jadeseal7 said:McLaren-Honda could only move forward; there was nowhere else to go but up.

Exactly. And their progress is actually more noticeable than Ferrari's.
For McLaren-Honda, the goal is to escape the back of the pack.
For Ferrari, the goal is to win the championship.

Who is closer to achieving their objective? I'll leave that for everyone to decide for themselves.

jadeseal7 said:AlphaTauri is running last year's Ferrari Engine, which was pretty reliable, so I don't see anything revolutionary happening there.

That's an uninformed fan comment.

fadedwalker18 said:Trying to estimate McLaren based on last year's early season results (mileage) is a total mistake.

As I said:
McLaren-Honda wants to get out of the back.
Ferrari wants the title.

Who is getting closer to their goal? I'll let you all draw your own conclusions.